Chaotropic chromatography method development for the determination of aripiprazole and its impurities following analytical quality by design principles.

In this paper, development of robust and reliable chaotropic chromatography method for the determination of aripiprazole and its impurities, following Analytical Quality by Design principles is presented. The efficient baseline separation and accurate determination of aripiprazole and its four impurities from tablets were set as Analytical Target Profile. In line with it, the influence of Critical Method Parameters (acetonitrile content, concentration of perchloric acid in water phase, and column temperature) on predefined Critical Method Attributes (separation of the critical pair of peaks, retention of the first and last eluting peak) was investigated with aid of the Central Composite Design. Further on Design Space, where Critical Method Parameters meet predefined acceptance limits with a high level of probability (π ≥ 85%), was computed as a result of performed Monte Carlo simulations. A normal operating conditions corresponding to 34% of acetonitrile, 66% of 42.5 mM perchloric acid, and column temperature at 35°C were selected from created Design Space. Robustness testing of the quantitative performances of the developed method was conducted combining Plackett-Burman design with alias matrix approach. Through the additional validation testing, reliability of the developed method for the use in the routine practice was completely confirmed.